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If you're practicing social distancing, you may get to a point where you and your kids, home from school, and stuck in the house start to go a little stir-crazy.
However, you're in luck! We've come up with this super fun list of 15 ways to make family time fun! Let's get back to basics and make the most of your time together!
1. Game Night - Put the electronics away and bust out the board games, decks of cards, and puzzles. Interact together and share some laughs while you make your way around the "Sorry" game board, or while putting together the clues to who murdered Colonel Mustard in the library.
2. Play Ball! Get outside in the yard and throw around the football, use frisbees to make bases for a softball game, or even kickball. Exert some energy while having fun as a family.
3. Scavenger Hunt - Create an age appropriate indoor or outdoor scavenger hunt. For inside the house, create a map and hide clues for little ones to find. For outside, create a list of nature items to find: a lady bug, a clover, a brown leaf, whatever works best with your environment.
4. Picnic in the Backyard - Have the kids help make sandwiches, slice up fruit, and make beverages for the whole family. Throw a blanket on the back lawn and enjoy your lunch outside in the sunshine!
5. Fort Night - Grab all the blankets, sheets, and pillows from the guest room closets and the kids beds and build a giant living room fort! Bonus points if it's big enough for all of you to sleep in together.
6. Lawn Games - Get out in the backyard for some old school games of Marco Polo, freeze tag, or break out the corn hole boards and create some fun competition.
7. Water Fight - Pull out the garden hose, arm yourself with buckets, sponges, and water balloons and have a good old fashioned water fight! Shrieks and laughs are sure to be part of the fun.
8. Star Gazing - Grab a big ole blanket and lay it out on the back lawn and stretch out and enjoy the stars. There are even some fun apps you can download that will tell you which constellations are which.
9. Lego Night - Most families with kids have buckets and buckets of legos hiding away in a back closet somewhere. Pull them out and dust them off and create a lego town, or medieval castle, or whatever world your creativity comes up with.
10. Karaoke Night - Grab some hair brushes or wooden spatulas for microphones, pull up the karaoke YouTube version of your favorite jams, and belt out all songs late into the night.
11. Bake Together - Pull up some of those Pinterest boards full of recipes you meant to try but never did and bake something fun and new with the whole family! Bon appetite!
12. Read Together - Depending on the ages of your children, choose to read either a chapter book aloud for everyone to enjoy together, or have your older kids curl up on the couch with you and have each of you dive into your latest reads separately, but together. Snuggling is optional. :)
13. Backyard Campfire - Pick up some firewood, marshmallows, chocolate bars, and grahams - throw some cushions around in a circle and have a backyard campfire session complete with s'mores and maybe [if you have instruments] some music making!
14. Ice Cream Sundae + Movie Night - I don't think this one needs much of an explanation. Set up a sundae bar with all the best topping options and get hype on sugar while you bond over a family movie.
15. Dance Party - If you're the kind of family that likes to shake your tail feathers, crank up the tunes and get down! Maybe even take the time to choreograph some moves and come up with a custom made family dance.
Difficult times in the community doesn't have to mean hard times at home. It's all about perspective - keep a positive outlook on things, do your part to stay safe and healthy, and make the most of the situation by enjoying the heck out of some family time!